Day: August 22, 2008

I had a couple of Add-on updates available when I started my Flock browser this morning so I thought that I’d share my list of currently installed add-ons. The last time I did this, readers confirmed that I had made wise choices and I got a couple of new suggestions. So, it was very helpful for me. While Firefox is a solid release, Flock is still at Beta Two. While Flock is my primary browser, there are still a couple of add-ons that I use regularly that keep me reverting to Firefox.

Here goes.

Adblock Plus: Want to speed up your browsing experience? Install this add-on. Now, anything that looks like advertising with all the flashing and annoyance to get you to click here, just never show up in the first place. You’ll speed up your online experience as well as advertising can take more time to download than the page content itself!

BetterSearch: If you think search engines like Google and Yahoo! are good now, enhance the results that they return with this better search. You’ll see previews right away to help speed up the process of finding exactly what you want to find.

Blocksite: This is a brilliant add-on that lets you block certain tracking or advertising websites when you visit them. They might appear as adverts or just hidden code that you don’t realize when you hit the webpage. Block ’em with this add-on.

CustomizeGoogle: If you’re using Google, imagine being able to tweak how it returns results to you. Customize Google does it. And, if you don’t find what you want at Google, you’re just a click away from doing the same search on many other popular search engines.
Delicious Bookmarks: Delicious users will really enjoy this add-on. Keep your bookmark library up to date just by clicking the Tag icon and enter the information from the current page in your browser. Another button gives you quick and easy access to everything that you’ve already bookmarked.

ExternalIP: I really liked this utility. In the status bar, it lets you know your current IP address. Currently, it’s disabled as not being compatible with Flock.

Fast Dial: Sure, you can have multiple pages set as the default, but Fast Dial lets you see them all at one! Click the one you want and away you go. No more locating the appropriate tab.

Flagfox: Remember “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego”? Where is that website you’re currently visiting from? You’ll see it in the status bar with the flag of the country.

Forecastfox: From Accuweather, get the current weather and the updated forecasts. Really helpful to plan for the weekend. It easily connects to Accuweather if you need to check the weather in another location.

Google Notebook: I really like the ability to make myself a quick note while browsing. With Google Notebook, it’s easily done and saved for you.

Google Toolbar for Firefox: Search bars and tool bars are becoming standard for browsers. I use the Google one and really appreciate the convenience of having it right up front.

Minimap Addon: This is a great add-on. Find an address in a webpae and drag it to Minimap and it’s instantly mapped for you. This add-on used to be called geoFlock.

PDF Download: I like having control over how I handle PDF files on the web. Rather than letting the browser do a default action for me, this add-on lets me have total decision making powers.

PicLens: This is awesome. View images as a wall of preivews and click on the image that you want to see. Flock says that it’s installed but it doesn’t work. I keep going back to Firefox to use this as it works like a real champ there. It’s now how I search for images given its access to the image search feature of a number of search engines.

Tab Effect: I miss this add-on. It added a three dimensional swinging door effect when you changed tabs. Not really functional but it sure brings out the “Wow” factor in browsing.

I’ve experimented with a number of video downloading add-ons but still haven’t found the perfect one yet.

So, there’s my list. What do you think? Are there others that you would highly recommend?